“The Last of Us Part I” & “The Last of Us Part II”; The Great Impacts & Significance of These Characters & Their World

Regarding Joel Miller & Ellie Williams

By Chelsea Johnson

(Joel and Ellie in Salt Lake City, looking at giraffes in the distance, amongst nature. Courtesy of Naughty Dog and The Last of Us.)

        “The Last of Us Part I” and “The Last of Us Part II”, created and developed by Naughty Dog, are both monumental games that– because of the immense detail put into the visuals and story– should very well be considered art. With the extraordinary connection between naturalism; stemming from the mention of roles that the government and other large parties portray, along with the nature in which humans act in the given environment–  and fiction; due to the many forms of infected that roam across America, and the overall post-apocalyptic nature that these characters are submerged in–  having not even advanced passed technology and the overall culture within the year 2013– the stories, characters, cutscenes, combat, and overall use of ethos within this game has greatly impacted not only those who’ve played it, but has changed what it means to be a genuinely thought-provoking, storytelling game.

“The Last of Us Part I”; What is One's Purpose in a Broken World?

Follow along with a map of Joel and Ellie’s Journey here!

(Left: a young Joel pictured with his late daughter, Sarah, trying to run to safety during the initial outbreak.

Right: a man keen on not making the same mistake– Joel carrying Ellie out of the Fireflies hospital, to safety.

Courtesy of Naughty Dog, and The Last of Us.)

The first “The Last of Us” game starts off with the player controlling and overall being in the perspective of Sarah Miller, the young daughter of Joel Miller. The main premise of this first section of the game is for Joel, Sarah, and Tommy– being Joel’s brother– to drive away from the initial outbreak of the viral Cordyceps brain infection; its hosts turning into zombie-ified beings with no control of their actions. Despite the three seemingly making their escape, Joel and Sarah are disrupted by a soldier who is commanded to shoot the two, despite them obviously not being infected. Although Joel tries his best to run away, swerving his body from the general direction of the soldier and his incoming bullets, he is far too late. Sarah screams in agony as the two fall to the ground, leaving Joel to quickly be aware of the situation at hand; he must mourn his first loss; his only daughter, and unfortunately for him, this is only the beginning of the chaos. America is now crashing down to a level of incivility, and the infected aren’t the only beings that one should fear; there is no hope, people are barely surviving and the government is taking advantage of its power, making it seem as though it's every man for himself. Everyone is suffering in this broken world, corrupt and reeking of the smell of these rotting, fungi-infested beings– beings like you and I– who can only suffer and cry as their bodies are forced to continue the spread of Cordyceps. Welcome, to the world of “The Last of Us”

20 years have passed, and there has yet to be any advancements in improving the dreaded problem that is the infected, and the overall post apocalyptic world that those who survived have to now call their reality. As the player, you are now playing in the perspective of Joel Miller, accompanied by a woman named Tess Servopoulos, seeming to be Joel’s partner. This section starts off with Joel and Tess trying to gather supplies to find Tommy Miller who, after disbanding with the Fireflies, has escaped out of the Quarantine Zone (QZ) in Boston, where Joel still resides.

Unfortunately, Joel and Tess’ plans go awry as Robert, the man to supply the couple with weaponry and supplies for the road, seems to have betrayed the two, giving their supplies to the Fireflies. After the player makes it through Robert’s goons, eventually killing him, it is discovered that the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, wanted the supplies in order to smuggle something out of the QZ.

Coincidentally, the two bump into Marlene after, noticing her drastic injury as she explains herself, revealing that she wants to smuggle a young girl by the name of Ellie Williams to a nearby Firefly base, leaving out the specifics as to what makes her so special to someone like Marlene. As the task seems relatively simple, Joel and Tess eventually oblige, learning that Marlene believes that Ellie can be the cure for the viral Cordyceps infection; Tess grows to become hopelessly devoted to the mission upon seeing a 3 month old bite mark on Ellie’s arm, faded and obviously not having caused her to become infected– seeing how people normally turn after 24 hours or less.

Unfortunately again, all of the Fireflies are found dead once they reach their destination. Tess frantically searches for some kind of sign of where other Fireflies may have gone, which leads Joel and Ellie to realize her deep desire to get this mission done is because she recently has got bitten. Left with a jumble of mixed emotions, Tess sacrifices herself upon hearing soldiers about to break into the Fireflies base, causing Joel and Ellie to escape, having nothing more to do than move on, continuing to reach their goal.

Despite Joel’s stand-offish demeanor towards Ellie, the player can tell that as the journey proceeds, that Joel has to try more and more to hide his care for Ellie, seeing as she greatly resembles Joel’s late daughter, Sarah. Due to the immense emotions that Joel hides from Ellie, he realizes– once they discover that Tommy has been in Jackson this whole time, building a community– that he can’t go on with his mission; he can’t fathom the idea that he may bare witness to Ellie’s brutal death, whether it be by a Clicker or Raider. Joel doesn’t want to fail his new daughter, Ellie, and this causes the two to get into an argument when Joel openly tells Tommy to finish the mission with Ellie, leaving Ellie feeling as though Joel never cared about her to begin with– which is far from true. Joel eventually comes to terms that he must continue bringing Ellie across America, until they reach the Fireflies, so once Tommy tells them he’s heard word of a Firefly base somewhere near Salt Lake City, they borrow a horse– and are off!

Making it to another vacant Firefly lab, like many times before, the player must maneuver their way as Joel around Raiders in order to continue their journey. Although there have been multiple times where Joel is met with a life-threatening altercation– making it out due to stereotypical, video game badassery, this time is very different, and causes the whole story to make a drastic change. Joel is impaled while fighting off one of the Raiders, leaving Ellie to help Joel make it out alive, and proceed to make it through the winter, aiding Joel's large, gaping wound and forced to survive on her own.

During this time, two crucial stories surrounding Ellie are played out– which also causes the player to familiarize themself with Ellie’s rather unstable and shaky aim, and low health.

We first learn of Ellie’s friend (DLC), back when she was training under FEDRA (the government), learning to be a soldier. Riley used to be in school with Ellie, but instead ran off to join the Fireflies, unprovoked– leaving Ellie on her own for a month or so. Riley tries to make it up to Ellie, showing her a lit up, slightly functioning mall where they have fun, just like they used to. But when Ellie learns that Riley is actually considering running off with the Fireflies, Ellie grows cold– similarly to Joel, due to her deep feelings for Riley.

Ellie, being genuine and full of emotion, kisses Riley, telling her not to go. Riley stays for Ellie with little to no hesitation, but this leads to her inevitable death by infected. Both girls get bit, but only one is able to make it fully functioning, and fully alive.

Going back to the present, Ellie has to deal with a cannibalistic predator by the name of David, who traumatizes Ellie after threatening and kidnapping her, sending his men after Joel. Sneaking around a snowy cabin, David kneels around– getting to Ellie’s level, as if he were a predator and she was his prey. The spine-chilling, quiet chase ends with Ellie slashing David sporadically with a macheting, screaming and on the verge of tears as only moments ago he tried to put himself on her. Joel, running on pure adrenaline, ‘dad instinct’, and penicillin (medicine Ellie acquired from the Cannibals), barges in after killing David’s men, holding Ellie in his arms; “Oh, baby girl… It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay now.” (Naughty Dog).

After being physically, emotionally, and mentally drained, Joel and Ellie finally end up at the hospital the Fireflies are residing in. Marlene is even there, and she marvels at how Joel managed to make it all the way from Boston to Salt Lake City, with both Ellie and himself intact. But, unfortunately yet again for Joel, there’s a catch to all of this. Marlene cautiously tells Joel that, "the doctors tell me that the Cordyceps, the growth inside her, has somehow mutated… once they remove it, they’ll be able to reverse engineer a vaccine. A vaccine."

“But it grows all over the brain.” Joel replies.

“It does.” There is a small silence after Marlene’s response, to which Joel says with no hesitation:

“Find someone else.” (Naughty Dog).

As Joel is being escorted out the hospital, he stops, as though something snaps, and the player is now given control to murder anyone and everyone in Joel’s way. He even kills Marlene after making it out the building unscuffed, gently placing an unconscious Ellie in the back of a car.

Despite Joel knowing what was right to him, he clearly can’t tell Ellie the truth, and instead claims that another group came in, guns blazing, and that there are many other people who are immune, just like Ellie. Skeptical and feeling guilt for not being able to succeed with her ‘one true purpose’-- watching so many get infected while she continues to thrive– Ellie says one last thing to Joel, before the official end of the first game.

“Swear to me. Swear to me that everything that you said about the Fireflies is true.”

Joel, with slightly saddened eyes, says, “I swear.”

After a long silence, Ellie finally says, “Okay.” And the game ends. (Naughty Dog).

“The Last of Us Part II”; Spinning Moral Compass

'The Last of Us Part II' developers reveal how Ellie was created

(14 year old Ellie protecting herself with a bow and arrow, without Joel, and 19 year old Ellie, 5 years later, in the same situation.

Courtesy of Naughty Dog and The Last of Us Part II.)

        The second addition to “The Last of Us” follows shortly after the events of the first game, back in Jackson where Joel is telling his younger brother Tommy what actually happened at the hospital with Ellie. Tommy, after hearing Joel out, says to his older brother that, “I can’t say I’d’ve done different. I’ll take it to the grave, if I have to.” (Naughty Dog). The player then is greeted by a sweet moment between Joel and Ellie where Joel is singing and playing the guitar for Ellie, as he promised he’d do in the last game. He also follows through with his promise of teaching Ellie to play the guitar, telling her that they’ll start their lessons the next day. The relationship between Joel and Ellie still seems rather heartfelt and genuine, but many flashbacks showcase when and how things began to grow rocky, and how the events of this second game unraveled.

        The first flashback that the player is exposed to is of what seems to be Ellie’s 15th birthday, where Joel brings Ellie to a museum with dinosaurs and rocketships, which just so happen to be two of Ellie’s most intense interests; she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, and knows a lot about astronauts and space. The two laugh as Joel compares a dinosaur's thick-headed skull to Tommy, and Ellie unveils all her nifty facts about astronauts. Joel even gives Ellie a present– a cassette tape with the countdown and ‘lift off’ of a spaceship. Ellie and Joel sit inside a display piece of the inside of a spaceship as Ellie listens to the tape– Joel watching happily, right by her side. Once the tape finishes, Joel ‘welcomes Ellie to Earth’, and gives her an honorary pin with a little rocketship on it. She still has it pinned to her backpack during the present timeline of the game.

        The second flashback is between Ellie and Tommy. The two are on patrol, and Tommy is teaching Ellie to shoot a sniper at infected, a good distance away from their current location. After the learning experience for Ellie and the player, we are greeted with an awkward looking Joel, and this is where things seem to grow apart for these two. Tommy sends the two off, and they end up face to face with a ton of infected, and even a Bloater that almost rips Ellie’s face in half; Joel slashes at it quickly, saving Ellie.

        The third flashback shows Ellie running away from Jackson– going back to the hospital where the Fireflies once resided. From multiple notes and tapes, Ellie learns of the Fireflies disbandment, and that Joel lied to Ellie about what happened before her surgery. Once outside, Ellie is met with a worried Joel, telling her to come back home with him. However, Ellie again asks Joel to explain himself:

“If you lie to me one more time, I’m gone. You will never see me again. But if you tell me the truth, I’ll go back to Jackson. No matter what it is. Just say it.”

Joel then confesses, “making a vaccine… would’ve killed you. So I stopped them.”

Ellie begins sobbing, and when Joel tries to console her, she snaps back up. “Don’t you fucking touch me… I’ll go back. But we’re done.” And she storms off, still crying. (Naughty Dog).

        The fourth flashback reveals an argument that broke out because of a man named Seth calling Ellie and Dina (Ellie’s girlfriend) a slur, causing Joel to step up between Seth and Ellie, which causes Ellie to get greatly upset with Joel, probably due to what she said in the previous flashback.

        Suddenly, night falls, and Joel is on a bench playing his guitar. Ellie comes up to Joel, and Joel and Ellie talk about Dina. Following the small talk, the conversation begins to take a turn as Ellie mentions the events at the hospital, five years ago now:

“I was supposed to die in that hospital. My life would’ve fucking mattered. But you took that from me.” Silence. Then Joel replies.

“If somehow the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment… I would do it all over again.” More silence.

“Yeah… I just… I don’t think I can ever forgive you for that. But I would like to try.” The player is hit with the bittersweetness of this flashback, especially considering that it happens towards the end of the game. “I’d like that.” Joel.

“Okay. I’ll see you around.”

“Yep.” Joel responds as Ellie leaves him, crying to himself. (Naughty Dog)

        All of these flashbacks happen due to the fact that at the beginning of the game, before all of these flashbacks, Joel gets killed by a woman named Abby Anderson, who was out on a mission of revenge– avenging his father who just so happened to be one of the doctors that Joel killed in the Fireflies hospital. From that moment on, Ellie has her own mission of revenge– she wants to kill Abby for what she did to Joel; after you’re aware of the last flashback, you see that Joel’s death happened the day before the argument and Joel and Ellie’s reconciliation, meaning that Joel and Ellie were supposedly working their way back to being on good terms before his sudden death.

        Throughout the game, you play as Ellie as she tracks down Abby and the members of her group, the ‘Washington Liberation Front’, ‘WLF’, or ‘Wolves’. You watch as Ellie brutally murders anyone in her way, her opponents screaming in agony as she kills them without a second thought. You’ll also play as Abby, seeing her side of the situation as she witnesses the massacre of her close friends– all by the hands of Ellie, and the few who joined her– Dina, Tommy, and Jesse (a friend of Ellie’s and former partner of Dina). Along with witnessing the terrifying outcome of Ellie’s pure anger and guilt, we watch as Abby tracks down Ellie throughout the madness, leading to the death of Jesse, and long lasting injuries on Tommy.

        After trying to live a normal life with Dina, Tommy visits and tells Ellie that she must continue what she started, as Abby and the kid she is bringing along with her (Lev) have escaped, and are off to live a normal life in Los Angeles. Dina gets upset at Tommy for coming into their house and speaking of revenge, but Ellie has been experiencing intense bouts of PTSD from Joel’s sudden death, and her lack of avenging him; she’s been unable to eat or sleep, and is basically a shell of the girl we met in the first game. So of course, she leaves, upsetting Dina and leaving her alone with their baby, JJ (the product of Dina and Jesse).

        Ellie eventually tracks down Abby, all thanks to Tommy’s, and kills even more people. She finds Abby and Lev tied up by one of the many crazy groups that run amuck, doing as they please; the two have been starving, expected to die, tied up on stakes in a field of hundreds of others who met the same fate.

Ellie lets them free, equally drained and injured, and tells Abby to fight her, ‘till they kill each other. They do just that, and Abby even bites off two of Ellie’s fingers, leading to Ellie almost drowning Abby, having the higher ground.

However, as she’s pinning Abby’s body down into the shallow water, she gets sudden flashes of an image of Joel (from the final flashback), and grimaces, letting her go. “Go. Just take him.” (Naughty Dog). Ellie says in between tears, leaving Abby to run off to Lev, safe in a boat– their escape, while she’s left alone in the water. One of her biggest fears is being alone.

        She ventures back to the home that Dina, JJ and herself, used to live in– their happy little family– only to find that Dina has left, and that all of her stuff is still in her room, including Joel’s guitar. Ellie plays it for a while, struggling with her two less fingers; the music fades into the final cutscene, and the game ends with Ellie leaving her guitar by the window of the house.

“The Last of Us”, and its Significance to the Digital Humanities

If you think these guys (below) are bad, then say hello to... 

(Left: a Bloater & right: a Clicker from Playstation 5’s “The Last of Us” model viewer. Courtesy of Naughty Dog and The Last of Us Part I.)

        After knowing the context of both of these games, it may not be very clear as to why I deem them to be significant to the Digital Humanities– I think you’d really have to play these games, and indulge yourself deep into these stories and characters in order to truly know how impactful these games are; they are not simple shooter games– these are games with fully fleshed out characters, feeling happiness, pain and suffering, just like we, as real people, are able to.

This story makes its player battle with their moral compass, being exposed to characters that you love from the first game, and snatching them away from you in the second, teaching the ever-so painful lesson of how temporary someone’s life can be, no matter how significant they may be in your life. “Both games begin with a character—one a child, one beloved—murdered in a defenseless state. Neither scene looks away from the brutality of violence, setting the tone for the games from the start. This remains true throughout the story, with numerous named characters tortured, maimed, and killed. There are small moments of levity and humor, but the world of Last of Us is oppressively bleak.” (Aikins)

It also causes its players to question the government and groups like the Fireflies and WLF, and how humans are still just as shitty during a post apocalyptic, zombie-infested world– though, there is no genuine bad guy in these stories, because anyone can be considered good or bad to the player. It all depends on one's perspective, and the fact that the first game is focused on Joel and Ellie– only to take Joel away from us and implement gameplay with the murderer– well, that can really impact the players morals, and will make hypocrites of us all, considering how Abby shares a similar story to our beloved main characters.

        However, the most important aspect that not only hooked me in the most, but also made me shed tears for these games, is Joel and Ellie’s beautiful father-daughter bond. It feels as though Joel is all of our dads, and many deem him to be up there with badass video game characters. “What makes the story shine isn't the grim mood or the small worldbuilding details. Instead, it's the relationship between Joel and Ellie that carries the emotional weight. Top-notch writing helps sell the big moments, but it's Joel and Ellie's small interactions, their verbal shorthand and the way they play off of each other, that help us get to know both characters and invest ourselves further in the story. More than any other game I've seen, ‘The Last of Us’ is a cinematic experience you can play, and is all of the argument needed for how interactivity can make an already good story even more powerful.” (Big Sky Publishing LLC).

        There are so many intriguing concepts within this game that are worthy of being analyzed, from the traumas and PTSD that many of the characters have to face, to the concepts behind the infected and this post apocalyptic world, to even the relationship between revenge enacted on avenging the one you love. It truly is a wonderful game, and it can teach you a lot on how you view others, especially the many characters in this game– many who may seem different, but actually share a lot of similar goals.

        I will be going more in depth as to why this game should be relevant and significant to the Digital Humanities for my central argument, which is the following section below.

My Central Argument

All Joel and Ellie flashbacks (TLOU 2) 

(Ellie and Joel looking at the giraffes near Salt Lake City. Courtesy of Naughty Dog and The Last of Us Part I.)

        My central argument focuses mainly on the relationship between Joel Miller and Ellie Williams, and how impactful that relationship can be on the player. Along with that, I want to focus on the intentionalities of the game; the way the world was built; the enemies’ reactions to you killing them; Joel’s death and how it affected Ellie; and the idea of there being no genuine villain or ‘bad guy’ in these games.

        Firstly, let's talk about the amazing details that were put into these games, almost making them feel like cinematic movies, where you get to play as the main character. The scholarly article, "Playstation 3's 'the Last of Us' Pushes Video Game Storytelling to the Brink: Playstation 3's 'the Last of Us' Pushes Video Game Storytelling to the Brink", explains how impactful and subversive even the smallest details can be on the players and characters. “Joel and Ellie's journeys take them across the United States to abandoned suburbs, rundown luxury hotels and disused bus stations, overgrown with nature and filled with mementos from old residents now long gone. ‘The Last of Us’ excels at creating small, bite-sized narratives through unsent letters or discarded family photos, each painting a picture of man's desperate struggle to survive.” (Big Sky Publishing LLC). What they say in their article is far beyond true– from the broken down, tilted buildings with hidden stories kept in each room, to the spores sticking out of decaying walls, this game does an amazing job of convincing you that these events are real, and they almost seem as though they can take place in real life. It’s what can make it so scary, not only because of the infected, but because of how attached one can get to the characters– you don’t want to see anything bad happening to them.

        The way killing is handled in this game is equally as realistic as the small details in each aspect of land your character walks on– it is absolutely brutal, not only in the aspects of gore, but especially in the aspects of, again, how realistic even the most insignificant characters are; their screams of agony are real, and aspects of screaming and dialogue are especially amped up in the second game, with much higher quality graphics. In an article by WIRED, titled “‘The Last of Us’ Makes Players Feel Really Bad—and That’s Great” it emphasizes how the weapons in the game, and how they’re used, not only helps the main character to progress, but can also be quite gruesome to the player. “The Last of Us used the graphical fidelity granted by the PlayStation 3 (and later the PlayStation 4’s upscaling upon the game’s 2014 release on that console) to show the brutality Joel inflicts on the human body. Exit wounds gape open on enemies hit by headshots, their lifeless eyes staring blankly. The game’s shotgun, granted early in the story, carries enough power to rip limbs off at close range. The human body is both beautiful and fragile, and inflicting so much carnage on it is deeply unsettling.” (Aikins). Continuing these concepts, the article also goes over the drastic improvements of this mechanic in the game, making the enemies seem a lot more human and vulnerable to the player– and especially at the hands of Ellie and her intense actions, caused by the need for revenge. “Thanks to improvements in the game’s AI, enemies (which, it should be reiterated, are other human beings who presumably have their own rich inner lives, the same way the protagonists do) react to what you do to them. Shoot someone to death in view of their squad-mate? Said squad-mate will cry out in terror and sorrow as their friend falls. Take off someone’s leg with that shotgun? They’ll writhe and scream in anguish, desperately crawling away from you. Part 2 introduced dogs into the game, and upon killing them their owners will react with the pain anyone who has lost a pet can feel in their bones.” (Aikins). The addition to killing dogs makes the player feel that what Ellie is doing is wrong, especially after hearing their final whimper, and the agonizing screams from their owner. I remember wanting to cover my eyes when being exposed to the murder of the WLF’s dogs, but to progress, you’re going to have to kill in order to survive.

        These games are notorious for how emotional Joel and Ellie’s relationships make the player; these stories are practically built on their bond, so watching Ellie slip from Joel’s fingertips makes the player feel as though they are losing Joel as well, and it’s a horrible feeling when you had to play as him for the entirety of the first game, especially after experiencing the sudden passing of Sarah, and the many after her. Not only do these emotions impact the player, but it very clearly impacts Ellie, who grows to hate Joel for deciding to let Ellie live, making her feel as though her one true purpose was taken from her, and she had no choice in the decision made for her. The second game is painful, seeing how hurt Ellie feels by Joel’s actions, and how she seemingly gave him small talk or simply nothing during the 2 years leading up to his death, and her overall discovery of his lies. In an article by Game Rant, titled “The Last of Us 2: Joel and Ellie's Relationship Explained”, the author explains how Joel and Ellie’s  bond impacts Ellie’s future actions, after Joel’s passing. “Obviously, their bond fuels Ellie's quest for revenge; there's no doubt about that. What players begin to learn through the flashbacks is that a lot of Ellie's inner turmoil and hatred is fueled by her regret as well. That rift between Joel and Ellie was never able to mend before his passing, and although Joel knew there was a mutual familial love between them, Ellie never had enough time to express that. That lack of closure is as big a reason for her revenge quest, more so than just her hatred.” (Dolen). Ellie feels deep regret for the lack of moments she had with Joel before his passing, especially considering how sudden his death was, and how Ellie’s path for forgiving Joel had barely started, leaving her with memories of how coldly she had acted towards him. She of course still feels anger for what Joel had done, but that is just more reason for her to go through with finding and killing Abby– her one purpose is gone, and now she must do what she deems would go right by Joel: avenging him. Furthermore, Joel’s impact on Ellie causes her to come to terms with herself, and what she had to do on the beach with Abby and Lev, and with the halt of her intense mission, she also learns to forgive Joel, despite all he did. The article “Naughty Dog Details Ellie’s Dark and Turbulent Evolution” from The Washington Post sums it up nicely, with quotes from the executive producer of “The Last of Us”, stating, “She hated Joel so much for what he did [at the hospital], and yet was able to find a way to start forgiving him,” Druckmann says. Ellie wants to hate him, but he’s “a good dad,” Gross says. It’s a legacy that he passes on to her, even if Ellie didn’t know it at the time of their final conversation.“Joel’s love of Ellie helped shape how Ellie dealt with that fight on the beach,” Gross says. (Favis).

        This concept took me a long time to accept, considering my love for both Joel and Ellie, but it is an important one that not only applies to this game, but can apply to multiple forms of media as well, such as books, movies, and more. Not every story needs a bad guy, and not every story will have a bad guy, because if a story has humans that feel realistic, that means they are indefinitely flawed. Flaws are what make us human; imperfections are present in us as a way for us to learn, and give lessons to others. Some flaws may be taken lightly in comparison to others, but in this game– especially regarding the environment that these characters are forced to adapt in– I think that a lot of fans of these games will find that they are being extremely hypocritical with who they love, and who they hate. Going back to the article from WIRED, the topic of good and bad, along with the actions of these characters through violence, is discussed in regards to how the player will have to think while simultaneously playing this game. “Across both games, the gameplay forces the player to ponder the morality of the characters. Is Joel a good person? Are Ellie or Abby bad people? The lines between all of them are left deliberately murky, but the history of violence they share is presented as something to be held against all of them.” (Aikins).

To end my central argument, and why this game should be important to the Digital Humanities, I present you with some final words from the executive producer, on The Washington Post. “‘I landed on this emotional idea of, can we, over the course of the game, make you feel this intense hate that is universal in the same way that unconditional love is universal?’ Druckmann says. ‘This hate that people feel has the same kind of universality. You hate someone so much that you want them to suffer in the way they’ve made someone you love suffer.’” (Favis).

Annotated Bibliography

Scholarly Sources (2)

"Playstation 3's 'the Last of Us' Pushes Video Game Storytelling to the Brink: Playstation 3's 'the Last of Us' Pushes Video Game Storytelling to the Brink."Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Jul 05, 2013. ProQuest, https://sfc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/playstation-3s-last-us-pushes-video-game/docview/1398660545/se-2.

Robbins, M. Brandon. "Knack for narrative: The Last of Us." Library Journal, vol. 138, no. 17, 15 Oct. 2013, p. 67. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A344826700/AONE?u=nysl_me_sfc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=0615e53a. Accessed 4 Mar. 2023.

Popular Sources (3)

Aikins, Gabriel. “‘The Last of Us’ Makes Players Feel Really Bad—and That’s Great.” WIRED, 15 Oct. 2022, www.wired.com/story/the-last-of-us-makes-players-feel-really-bad-and-thats-great.

Dolen, Rob. “The Last of Us 2: Joel and Ellie's Relationship Explained.” Game Rant, 22 June 2020, gamerant.com/the-last-of-us-2-joel-ellie-father-daughter-revenge-forgiveness.

Favis, Elise. “Naughty Dog Details Ellie’s Dark and Turbulent Evolution.” Washington Post, 1 July 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/video-games/news/the-last-of-us-part-2-ellie-evolution/.

Images (8)

Wallpaper. “The Last of Us PS4 [3840x2160].” Pinterest, 24 Jan. 2020, www.pinterest.com/pin/386183736800443005.

Lesforellie. “★.” Pinterest, 22 Oct. 2022, www.pinterest.com/pin/807762883183738740.

Cherrysfruity. “Lgbt.” Pinterest, 19 Mar. 2023, www.pinterest.com/pin/677369600225951131.

Illustrator, C. Billadeau-. “The Last of Us In-Depth Review.” Pinterest, 13 Sept. 2014, www.pinterest.com/pin/500532946059870469.

Jae. “Ellie.” Pinterest, 29 Dec. 2022, www.pinterest.com/pin/227080006204272335.

---. “★.” Pinterest, 22 Oct. 2022, www.pinterest.com/pin/807762883183738604.

---. “★.” Pinterest, 22 Oct. 2022, www.pinterest.com/pin/807762883183738622.

Ig. “Joel and Ellie.” Pinterest, 28 Apr. 2023, www.pinterest.com/pin/671528994457498372.

Games (Content in Images, Storyline, Quotes…) (2)

The Last of Us. Developed by Naughty Dog, Playstation 3, Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2013.

The Last of Us Part II. Developed by Naughty Dog, Playstation 4, Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020.